July 17, 2012 - Village of Luaha

Well this week was so amazing!! 
           Elder Nascimento and I left super early Thursday morning and caught the train to Iapula - a pretty small town. It took about 5 hours and we stopped like every 30 minutes at little towns along the way. At Iapala we met with some members who had motorcyles from Luaha who took us into Luaha. It was almost an hour on the back of the motorcycle and my driver was crazy. There is a tiny branch of about thirty members there. President Lucas Bento who is the branch president is the funniest guy I have ever met. He is 74 years old! A couple of years  ago probably he went to Portugal for medical reasons and met the missionaries and was converted. He moved back and called our mission president and asked for missionaries to be sent to Luaha and they helped organize a branch there. They are the nicest people ever. He and other members payed for and built a chapel that is way nicer than any of their houses. It's just made out of mud bricks, bamboo and has a straw roof but the spirit is so strong there!! I have never had so much fun or laughed so much. The people honestly are so poor but they are always smiling and laughing . We brought our own food and some for them and they cooked it for us. Beans and rice. I gave a talk in Portuguese and Castelo who is the 1st counselor translated into Makua for me. Some of the people don't even understand Portuguese. I think 5 people have the Melchizidek priesthood there. We made them a cake and it had butter and sugar and they told me I need to bring some next time. They love that stuff because they can't afford it so they never have it. They sang so much - it was awesome! I think most of it was in Makua though, and it sounds more confusing than Chinese. We climbed to the top of a mountain called Lala one morning at 3:00 to see the sunrise. One of the kids named Tuce took us. He was so cool. The kids are so amazing!!
    Ok, well we just got back and this place closes in like an hour and I still have to e-mail President Kretley so I will write more next week.  I have so much to say - the last picture on here is the chapel - the nicest building in Luaha . The paper picture is my name in portuguese according to president Bento haha. Tomorrow President Kretley will be in Nampula!